


Here and Now

by anticyclone



Category: Original Work
Genre: (temporary) vision loss, Cunnilingus, F/F, Getting Together, Magic, Psychic Bond, blood mentions, referenced (minor) character death, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 10:47:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14830848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anticyclone/pseuds/anticyclone
Summary: Their ship is ambushed, and Wynn and her knight retreat to a hospital to recuperate. When Piper wakes up in the morning, her healer has vanished - apparently, not of her own will. That kind of thing is enough to piss anyone off.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shores](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shores/gifts).



> Thank you to elegantstupidity for beta-ing this story and giving me some great feedback! All remaining mistakes are my own.

"What do you mean, she's not here?"

"Lady Rene was summoned to the capitol yesterday, Wynn. I'm sorry." Edi's eyes were kind.

Wynn clenched her hands. Her fingers were still sore from trying to fix Piper's arm in the field, first on their ship and then in the carriage that had brought them to Green Meadow. This wasn't the hospital where she had trained, and she barely knew any of the staff, but they were  _ supposed  _ to have two inorganic specialists. People who knew how to fix Piper's mechanical arm.

It was maddening enough that she couldn't do major field repairs herself. At least not when critical components were crushed into dust under the assault of enemy magic. Now, with no specialists at the hospital, she was going to have to wait even longer to find out what had happened.

"Rene is tending to— Well, I don't rank high enough to know who she's attending to, but someone important." Edi glanced at the door behind them. Wynn resisted the urge to turn around and look herself. "We can take care of Lady Piper until her return."

"I can't take Piper back on patrol without her arm."

"No one expects you to. You may not be one of ours, but you're welcome at Green Meadow." Edi touched her fingers to Wynn's chin and Wynn reluctantly allowed her to tip her face up. "And, frankly, you need as much attention as your knight right now."

"I'm fine."

"How's the peripheral vision in your left eye?"

Wynn flinched and took a step back. She wanted to wrap her arms around herself, but that was something a child did — not someone who'd had their healing certification for three years running. "My magic reserves are low. I was saving them until we'd arrived. In case Piper's wounds reopened."

"Understandable. But I'm not willing to discharge you without examining you." Edi gestured to another room. "Inform your knight that you'll be back soon and join me."

"Piper needs—"

Edi gave her a look that killed the rest of the sentence on her tongue. "Piper is stabilized. I don't allow patients to willfully hurt themselves in my hospital, Wynn. Tell her you'll be back and come get your eye fixed."

***

Piper cracked one eye open and tried to keep her face blank. The door had been partially open the entire time — Wynn had a thing about never closing doors completely behind her, though she'd deny it if you said so. As expected, her healer's face was red.

This wasn't such a bad place. The landscaping was absurdly beautiful, rolling fields rich with flowers and bushes. Piper had stared out the window the entire time they'd been working on her burns. The building itself was constructed out of light-colored stone, which kept the rooms cool despite the summer burning outside. It was true, they didn't really know any of the staff here, but it'd been far closer than the hospital where Wynn had trained.

"I don't mind staying here," Piper said. The healer working on her leg ducked his head. Good. Wynn was clearly not in the mood to deal with extra people right now.

Wynn tensed. "Lady Rene is with a patient at the capitol. She'll be gone for at least a week. Blue Falls is only four days ride from here, I could take your arm to Ava and see—"

"Wynn."

"—if she could fix it there before I bring it back to you," Wynn rambled, ignoring her. As usual. "If I change horses it would probably take less than four days. I could be back at the same time as Lady Rene, and she could—"

"Wynn…"

"—make sure your repaired arm was synced with you again before we left."

"Wynn. I'm not going to ask again." Piper held her hand out.

The red in Wynn's face turned darker. She bit back whatever she was going to say, though, and stepped forward to place her hand in Piper's. Piper turned her hand over, intending to kiss her wrist — it was one of the only surefire ways to derail her when she was worked up like this. Instead, Piper had to frown. The burn Wynn had suffered when they'd both been hit with that fire blast was still there, in the crook of her arm.

"You told me you healed that."

"I healed it over. I just didn't heal it through. I needed to save my magic."

The ambush had been bad, but not  _ that _ bad. Their ship had been boarded by bandits in the middle of the night. Piper would have taken care of it if one of the people — they'd all had scarves tied across their mouths, to hide their faces — hadn't been willing to set fire to the ship they'd all been standing on. She knew at least one of the attackers had fallen in the river. Her own leg had been slashed when the rest of the bandits started to retreat. Then, whoever set fire to the ship had lobbed a fireball at both her and Wynn to keep them from following.

But Piper hadn't been in such bad shape that Wynn needed to leave  _ burns  _ on her skin.

"I heard what you told Healer Edi," Piper said. She tightened her grip on Wynn's wrist to keep her from pulling away. Fuck it. "How's your eye?" she asked, letting irritation seep into her voice.

"Edi is overreacting. It's a minor problem."

"I feel like losing some of your vision is not a minor problem."

The healer working on her leg opened his mouth but shut it when he caught the look on Piper's face. It was lucky that Wynn hadn't been looking at him. Piper wasn't actually angling for a medical opinion in this argument. She just needed her stubborn healer to listen to her for once.

Wynn made a dismissive gesture with her free hand. "It wasn't important in the field. It's my job to make sure you're well. I saved my magic so I could do that."

"You're not doing your job if you don't take care of yourself. You need to be able to keep aware of our surroundings just as much as I do." Piper waited for a response, but this time, Wynn's face just went white. She was clenching her jaw. The healer looked uncomfortable — maybe she should have sent him out after all. Too late for that.

"Go to Edi, Wynn. I don't want to see you again until you're fixed." She let go of Wynn's hand without kissing her wrist after all.

This time, Wynn did actually shut the door all the way behind her.

The healer glanced at her. "They didn't tell me you two were bonded. If you were injured badly enough to affect your perceptions of each other, I need to—"

"We're not bonded."

He blinked. "Ah."

Piper settled back against the pillows they'd brought in for her, earlier. She looked back out the window. It was still sunny, and hot, and now there were little rabbits eating some of the flowers in the field.

***

Eventually, they released Piper. They didn't bother to discharge her, because they weren't going anywhere until Lady Rene returned. In the meantime, she had been assigned a room in one of the upper levels, and her mechanical arm was in a box awaiting cleaning.

The arm she'd lost was her left. It had been cut off between her shoulder and elbow, which made the mechanical replacement one of the more complex models on the market. Normally, Piper was able to do most of the cleaning and minor repairs herself. Wynn would have done all of it if she'd let her, which was stupid, because Piper had to be able to tend it herself.

Still. Walking around in daylight without her arm was unusual. Normally, she only took it off at night, and sometimes she did let Wynn take care of it, especially if there were other things that needed doing.

But nothing else needed doing here. She knocked at an office. "Healer Edi," she said.

"Your wounds aren't bothering you this morning, are they?"

"No." Piper looked around. The hospital's banner hung above one of the windows. There were two soft chairs in the corner, and a full set of anatomical charts on the wall behind Edi's desk. "Wynn didn't come back to see me last night."

Edi closed her notebook. "Did you check the cafeteria?"

"Yes, but she doesn't typically eat breakfast." She paused. "Officially, Wynn is part of my unit. It's just us two, but… I am entitled to information about her care, if she is incapacitated."

A brief smile played over Edi's face. She leaned back in her chair and put her hands in her lap, radiating calm. It was no wonder she'd been made Lead Healer in Lady Rene's absence. Piper imagined that someone who didn't know how much trouble Wynn could get into would be reassured by that kind of smile.

"I personally tended to Wynn's burns and the injury to her back."

"Her back?" Piper took a step forward so she could close the door. She rested her hand on the back of the chair by Edi's desk but didn't sit down. "She didn't tell me her back was hurt."

"Some bruising. She said she was pushed down." Edi regarded her for a moment but refrained from asking her to sit. "She sustained a minor head injury when the fire blast knocked you down. Nothing to be overly concerned about, but there is some swelling around her eye. It should clear up within the next couple of days."

Piper ran her thumb over the top of the chair. "You didn't heal it?"

"Deep intervention is field magic, Lady Piper. I took down the worst of it. With the attention she needed elsewhere, I felt it was best to let Wynn's body run its own course." She sighed. "Her magic reserves were nearly depleted. Since they're linked to you, I didn't want to use them up completely on her eye. Her other injuries needed more immediate attention."

It took a moment to answer.

This was an issue they only ran into around other magic users. Most of Piper's connections weren't mages, or healers, and Wynn… didn't get along with enough people to bring them into intimate contact with others often. She tended to keep to herself when they were forced to keep close quarters with strangers. Once, their unit had been in a crash. Wynn had been so frantically attending to everyone that the responding mages had said they could see her magic moving over Piper and the others.

Of course, now it was just Piper. There were different assumptions when you were your healer's only knight. "Wynn and I aren't bonded," she said. "As far as I know, Wynn has never bonded with anyone. Before this year, our unit consisted of four knights and a squire."

Edi took a moment to absorb that. "What happened to the others?"

"They were killed on a mission. I'm not able to disclose the details." Piper looked out the window: this side of the hospital campus was lined with flowering trees. "Wynn came into the unit with our leader, Lady Anita. They had been together for six months but never bonded. And then there were so many of us."

"Her magic is still linked to you," Edi said. She shook her head when Piper tried to open her mouth. "She was very anxious about the attack. The magic you were hit with reacted unusually with the both of you. Her eyesight should not have been affected, and the crystals powering your arm should not have collapsed. If I had healed her vision completely, it would have drained the rest of her magic."

She imagined Wynn peacefully sleeping through this morning as her magic reserves rebuilt, instead of wandering off… somewhere. "I would prefer to have been consulted about that."

"All due respect, Lady Piper, but Healer Caldwell was repairing torn muscles in your leg at that moment." Edi stood. She also smiled, but it was clear the meeting was over. "I advised Wynn to meet with some of our students. We always encourage them to learn from healers with field experience."

Piper reluctantly smiled back. "Of course. Where do they normally gather?"

***

Piper stopped at the entrance to the courtyard. Some patients were out here — with nurses or visitors. There was also a cluster of healers in the corner.

It wasn't until she was nearly on top of them that she saw a knight was sitting with them too, a tall woman with long blonde hair. Her tunic bore a vaguely familiar crest over a sword. Not a city Piper had ever visited in person. To the knight's side, Wynn was settled with one leg folded underneath herself. She startled when she spotted Piper, but Piper had a hand on her shoulder before she could stand.

"That's not necessary."

"I thought you would sleep in," Wynn said. She pressed her lips together when Piper touched her cheek. "I'm fine."

If they'd been in private, Piper would have argued with her definition of  _ fine. _ She was going to have to find Edi later to argue it, too. "How long do you have to wear the eye patch?" she asked, proud of herself for keeping her voice even.

"Two nights." Wynn glanced at the blonde knight and then back at her.

Hmm. Piper let go of her.

"This is Lady Piper of Falshire," Wynn said, turning to the assembly. Now that she was up close, Piper could see the badges on everyone's collars, indicating they were Green Meadow students. Even the knight was wearing one. "Piper, these are first-year students. This is Lady Iris of Doveport."

"I'm doing my emergency medical rotation," Iris said. She held her hand out and Piper extended her own. Iris gave a firm handshake. Her shirt covered her wrists, where her mage tattoo would be, so Piper had no idea what academy she'd attended. "Wynn said she studied at Blue Falls. Is that where you did your own rotation?"

Piper smiled and took the empty space that one of the students made for her, next to Wynn. "I'm not a mage," she said.

"But you have your own healer! That must be a story," Iris said, grinning and ignoring the way that the line of Wynn's shoulders went tight. "Care to share?"

"Wynn and I are on a patrol assignment until we're resorted into a new unit," Piper explained. That was all the explanation she was going to give in front of this many people.

Wynn briefly touched a hand to Piper's leg but didn't linger.

The students resumed the conversation they'd been having when Piper interrupted. It was extremely unpleasant. Apparently, the story of their ship getting set on fire had started a 'worst burn you've ever seen' contest. Wynn had way too much to contribute. It was all Piper could do to watch the birds flitting around the courtyard instead of interjecting that everyone at the table needed to reconsider their concept of polite conversation.

Eventually, a bell rang, and the students scattered to their first classes of the day.

Iris stood too. "I should join them," she said. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Lady Piper. Healer Wynn."

"Be well," Wynn answered in response.

She didn't pull back when Iris latched onto her hand and kissed her knuckles. It was the standard gesture between a knight and a mage who weren't personally acquainted. Piper still glanced away.

Lady Anita used to kiss the inside of Wynn's wrist — especially when Wynn was lecturing them all about some safety failing she'd witnessed or decided she'd witnessed. Wynn was not particularly fond of the gesture from strangers. When they'd been at court, she'd often linked arms with Anita, or even Ward or their squire Lucille, to keep her hands occupied.

Wynn turned back to Piper after Iris walked off. "I really did think you were going to sleep in. I was going to tell you about the eye patch when you woke up."

"It's okay," Piper said, her right hand clenched in her lap. "Make it up to me by joining me for breakfast before they stop serving for the morning. You don't even have to eat anything."

"Oh, sure. I really do like to watch you eat," Wynn said, rolling her eyes.

"Fortunately for you, I'm very hungry."

***

That afternoon brought clear weather. Apparently, much too clear to try to use the hospital library to research what may have caused the crystal collapse in Piper's arm. Instead, Piper insisted that it was the perfect kind of afternoon to stretch and spar.

Wynn refused to participate. She sat at the side of the yard with both legs folded underneath her and a book on her lap. It was an inorganic specialty book — she'd managed to talk Edi into letting her borrow it from Rene's office. Most of the text made almost no sense, but there were some diagrams that reminded her of Piper's arm. This was the kind of thing they  _ should _ be spending their time on.

Instead, Piper was testing the weight of different staffs. Green Meadow hosted a physical therapy unit for the knighthood, so they had a wide selection to choose from.

Piper favored swords, but the hospital had kindly asked her not to overexcite the students. There were several first years huddled a few feet away from Wynn. Apparently, their next class would be 'right near here,' and they 'hung out in the PT courtyard all the time.'

After selecting a staff, Piper walked over to her. "Are you sure you don't want to join me?"

Wynn sniffed. "Yep." It had nothing to do with her eyepatch, either. And the leather strap holding the patch in place was absolutely not itching against her dark hair like mad.

Piper grinned and held her hand out, linking their fingers together. "Don't be mad," she murmured. "I need to exercise."

"I mean, you could take a walk, like a normal person," Wynn muttered. She glanced out at the courtyard. There was a man using a specially constructed pathway to test out a new pair of crutches, but the other knights were all looking at the staffs. "Whose healer gave you permission to try to beat them up?"

"No one's. Lady Iris should be here shortly."

"What?"

"We ran into each other when you were bothering Edi about that book," Piper said, ignoring Wynn's scowl. "We were discussing our recent missions and our education came up. She also studied under Sir Paul — after I graduated. But our styles are the same, so she said it would be interesting to test her skills against mine. We're not all-out sparring. She just wanted to see how I've adapted Paul's techniques to one arm."

Wynn shook her head. "If you get crushed, I'm not healing you."

At the other end of the yard, Iris appeared. She'd changed into an outfit more appropriate for sparring, with long sleeves that hid her arms from the sun. She waved at them and went to go pick up a weapon.

Piper ran her thumb over Wynn's knuckles. "What if I win?"

"Tell you what," Wynn said, blowing out a breath. She still thought this was stupid. Piper fighting one-armed in the field meant something had gone really wrong. But … she guessed it made sense someone would want to know how to fight if they were injured. "You knock Iris flat, I'll eat breakfast with you in the morning."

"Is that a promise?" Piper asked. But Iris was nearly over to them, so she kissed Wynn's hand and let go without waiting for an answer.

Iris smiled at the both of them. "Healer Wynn. Lady Piper." She bowed her head.

Piper lowered her head in reply. "Lady Iris."

Sucking in a breath through her teeth, Wynn looked down at her book. The Green Meadow healers had fixed the burn on the back of Piper's neck quite nicely — her brown skin was smooth again, freckles still in place. They hadn't been able to regrow any of Piper's singed hair, but someone had gone in to clip it short all over the back and sides. It was like the fire blast had never happened.

Wynn flexed her fingers and resisted the urge to fiddle with her eye patch. Even though, maybe, just a little, it  _ was _ starting to itch against her hair. Which had only escaped getting similarly singed because she'd had the hood of her cloak up when they were hit.

She had read the sentence at the top of the page three times when the first sound of wood hitting wood rang out. Thumb under the sentence she still couldn't understand, Wynn glanced up just long enough to see that the patients out for physical therapy training had stopped to watch the knights.

It wasn't a usual session — Wynn had watched enough of those, even though she and Piper had been on their own since… since the beginning of the year, to know that.

Piper was demonstrating her new preferred grip, and Iris was mimicking it. They knocked the staffs together a few times while Piper gave her notes.

"That isn't your dominant arm, is it?" Piper asked, watching Iris adjust her grip.

Iris grinned. "No. If I've got to fight with one arm, I figure my sword arm's out of commission. How'd you tell?"

"Posture," Piper said.

The next page in her book had fewer words and more diagrams. These were semi-familiar too. It showed the preferred system for latching the mechanical arm onto a patient's stump — something Piper could do by herself but that Wynn had to know as well. There had been a couple of instances where she'd needed to get Piper's arm off, quickly, to get at some damage or treat some other injury.

Tracing the lines of the drawing, she pressed her lips together. It was… she should already own this book. She should know more about inorganics by now than she did. There had to be something in here about the crystals that channeled magic so Piper could operate her arm without pause. But was she going to understand it? It wasn't as if she could re-grow the crystals — they would need to wait for new ones to be shipped in — but surely there was some way to shield against whatever magic had affected them. An inorganic healing unit would take half a year to complete, and even then, she still wouldn't be an expert. Wrangling half a year for study would be nearly impossible at the moment. Not with tensions between the Dynasty and the Empire growing stronger.

In a couple of months, their current assignment would be over and they'd be recalled to court. They'd be slotted into a new unit and sent back to keep the Empire from creeping farther into their territory. Maybe they'd go back to the plains. Maybe they'd be sent into the river-carved canyon the Empire was trying to dam up. Maybe someone in their new unit would…

Wynn stared at an incomprehensible description of how new power crystals were grown. New medical students graduated each fall. It would be fall when they went back to court.

It would make sense for Piper to be in a unit with a healer who'd studied inorganic magic and repair as their specialty, instead of someone who hadn't even taken the introductory lessons.

Someone sat down next to her and Wynn jumped. A woman in a loose, tan tunic and pants smiled at her. A patient’s clothes, though they didn't fit her very well. Short-cropped brown hair. "Hi. I just wanted to take a seat."

"Right."

"Did you come in with the one-armed knight?"

Wynn stared at her, a distant buzzing in her ears. "Excuse me?"

The patient blinked dark eyes. "Uh, sorry. I don't — I don't know their names, but I've seen the blonde around. But not the other one. Or you."

Wynn gripped the edge of her book. "Her name is Lady Piper," she said, stiffly. A visual sweep didn't reveal why this woman might be in the hospital, but Wynn’s magic reserves were still too low to do anything with.

"Right." The patient glanced at Iris and Piper, who were testing out different hits now, working up to swings that actually tested each other's balance. "My name is Efa."

"Wynn," Wynn said, after a split second of hesitation.

"I'm here for an annual physical." Efa raised an eyebrow at her, but Wynn didn't react. After a moment Efa said, "And you? And … Piper?"

"Minor injuries. You know how it is. Sometimes cowardly bandits decide that it's too hard to rob you, so they set your ship on fire instead."

"Uh…"

Wynn smiled.

"Right. Uh. I thought maybe, something was wrong with your knight's mechanical arm?" Efa said. When Wynn raised her head to stare at her again, Efa leaned forward and tapped a fingertip against the diagram open on the page. "You're reading about them."

"Routine servicing," Wynn answered, shortly. She shut the book without bothering to mark the page she'd been looking at.

Across the courtyard, Piper hooked the end of her staff behind Iris's ankle and tugged. A couple of the watching knights let out a whoop when Iris tumbled. She hit the ground fine — a little hard on one shoulder, the arm she'd been trying to act like wasn't working — and managed to roll into it and pop back up to her feet. There was a sharp grin on her face.

From where they were sitting, Wynn couldn't hear what Iris said, but she could see her lips move. Piper gave her staff a spin in return.

"I've been out in the west swamps — you know, Morley, Canton. Green Meadow is pretty far out from there, but it's where they sent me."

Wynn blinked and looked back at Efa. "Green Meadow is closer than any of the other hospitals to the west swamps," she said, frowning. That was why they had come here in the first place.

"I mean… Val Caverns."

"Val Caverns is a research and weapons production center for the crown, not a hospital."

"Oh, really? I see healers coming and going there all the time."

"And that makes a hospital? I mean, yes, there's a medical wing, but they're creating medicine and supplies and tending to injuries, not — Oh, damn it." Wynn started to stand but sat back down when Piper threw her a look. Iris had just managed to replicate the ankle-hook maneuver. Piper rolled back onto her feet and turned her back to Wynn. Ugh. "Knights," she muttered.

Efa laughed softly. Wynn's face flushed.

The hits the knights started landing were more serious. Wynn kept her eyes on Piper's feet, watching for wobbles in her balance, but none came. Iris pushed her backwards hit by hit, until they were in the center of the courtyard. Wynn couldn't see Piper's face — but she realized at the same moment as Iris did that all of a sudden, Iris's line of sight was straight into the glare of the sun.

Piper shoved her left shoulder down and then up, knocking straight into Iris's gut. She used her foot to pull Iris off her feet, and slammed the staff down flat on the ground next to Iris's face as soon as Iris hit the dirt.

The spectator knights whooped again, clapping this time.

"That was quite a show. But I guess my healers are probably expecting me," Efa said, hopping to her feet.

Then she held her hand out. Wynn just stared at it. She had calluses on her palm and a tattoo on her wrist. It was small, a single apple blossom, but Wynn had seen similar tattoos before. Efa wasn't just a knight — she was a mage.

"Wynn."

Wynn jumped, startled, and found Piper and Iris both watching them. Iris had her staff slung across her shoulders. Piper had hers planted firmly on the ground. She glanced at Wynn and then at Efa, who still had her hand outstretched and a bland if somewhat taut smile across her face.

Grimacing inwardly, Wynn held out her own hand. Efa bent and kissed her knuckles briefly. "Be well."

"Be well," Wynn answered. Apple blossom. What school was that?

Efa bowed her head to both Piper and Iris before leaving — not waiting to be introduced. After she had left the courtyard, Piper walked forward and swept some loose hair away from Wynn's eye patch. "Who was that?"

"She was here for an annual physical. I guess she was bored." She squinted at Piper. "Am I obligated to eat breakfast tomorrow?"

That did make Piper smile. "Breakfast is important."

"Breakfast is delicious," Iris added. She shrugged when Wynn glared at her. "I'm hitting the showers. Piper?"

"I'll be there in a moment."

Wynn waited until Iris was out of earshot to cross her arms over her chest. "Are you all exercised out now?"

"I would have preferred the weight of my sword, but mostly." Piper touched her cheek again. "I still don't like that they didn't heal your vision completely."

"I'd have slept through most of the day if they did."

Piper let go. "We'll disagree about whether that's an actual problem. I also still don't like that you didn't tell me about it."

"I was going to."

"We had a long trip here, Wynn." Piper held up her hand to stop her from protesting. "I need to know these things in the field. You can't…" She sighed, and ran a hand through the curls still left at the top of her head, untouched by the fire blast. "Let's talk about this after dinner."

"Fine."

***

The longer the day wore on, the worse Piper felt. Every knight she had run into had, of course, asked why she was there. Most came to Green Meadow because of the physical therapy offerings. There was an entire unit of five — three knights, two squires — who had landed here together after their healer was knocked unconscious during a skirmish. They had watched her spar with Iris and told her a little about the incident while they'd been putting their staffs away.

It made something in her gut twist to imagine Wynn knocked out on the floor. Her arm had been damaged as soon as the fire blast hit them, and there was no way she could have moved her to safety. With the ship on fire, and the crew busy trying to put it out…

Piper sighed. She squared her shoulders and knocked on Wynn's door.

Wynn opened the door almost immediately. She'd taken off her eye patch, and her hair was damp against her throat. She'd changed from the hospital-provided clothes into a newly cleaned dress she mostly wore while their traveling clothes were in the laundry. She must have showered right after dinner, when Piper had gotten waylaid by some students.

"Fuck," Piper said, staring. "Wynn."

"It's fine."

"It's not fine!" Piper caught the side of Wynn's face in her palm and forced her to turn her head. "Your eye is  _ worse. _ We need to see Edi immediately."

Wynn's eyes had always been a steady, pale brown. Now her injured one looked gray. The pupil was blown wide, and it didn't contract even when she glanced up at Piper and the lamp fixed above the door.

"This is just a side effect of the healing process. It's going to look this way until it's better." Wynn huffed out a breath. "I have a theory about the magic those bandits hit us with."

"You can tell it to me on our way to see Edi."

"I don't need to see Edi!"

Piper tightened her grip on Wynn's jaw and forced her to connect their gazes. Her good eye looked so startlingly different from the injured one. Piper's gut twisted again. "I'm responsible for you in the field. This is what I wanted to talk about. You need to tell me when things are wrong. You can't put yourself out of commission because you think I need shielding. I can't make decisions without knowing how you are. I can't keep you safe if you hide things from me."

Swallowing, Wynn pulled Piper's hand down. She took a step backward and Piper stepped into her room. Wynn put her hands on her hips. "I'm the one who's supposed to keep you safe!" She looked out the dark window, turning her bad eye away from Piper. "My magic will always come back. I can always heal myself later."

Piper took a couple of breaths, slow, counting to five and down again. It was a technique she'd been taught as a squire. It didn't help ease the twist in her gut or the aching heat blossoming in her chest, but it did keep the first thing she wanted to say from spilling out of her mouth.

"You used to tell Anita things. You didn't wait to talk to her."

"Yes," Wynn said, her hands falling to her sides. Her fingers were trembling. When she looked back at Piper, her face was flushed. "Well. Anita isn't here, is she?"

The room went silent.

Piper counted to three and opened her mouth. "That's a fine thing to say to a person. I didn't…"  _ Take Anita away from you. _

"No! You didn't!  _ I _ did!" Wynn brought her hands up like she was going to shove Piper back and only caught herself at the last moment. Water welled up in her good eye.

Someone cleared their throat behind them. Piper spun on her heel, her arm coming up defensively, but it was just Iris. She'd changed back into normal clothes but was missing the badge on her collar that identified her as a student. She glanced back and forth between them and then made a gesture at the hallway.

"You may want to consider shutting the door," she said, gently.

"Thank you," Piper said, stiffly.

Iris didn't move for a moment. When she finally turned back the way she must have come, down the hall from where Piper's own room was, Piper did shut the door. She also turned around and leaned against it.

Wynn silently wiped the tears out of her eye. She didn't say anything as she dug around in the discarded clothes on her bed. It only took a second for her to find her eye patch and pull it into place. The angry flush was fading from her cheeks and she looked tired.

"I need to ask you something."

Wynn sat on her bed and stared at the floor.

Piper inhaled. They had been working together exclusively for nearly six months now. When their unit had originally formed, Wynn had been working with Anita for six months already. Then, she’d had to stretch her magic over four more people and … that kind of work interrupted things. If things had started to happen with Wynn’s link to Anita.

A healer’s magic naturally linked to anyone they worked on regularly, allowing faster and more effective treatment in the future. A healer who dedicated themselves to one patient in particular might find that magic link deepening into a bond — something that connected the two even when they were apart. Not that bonded pairs tended to be apart that often. The same thing could happen with mages who worked closely with knights.

"Edi and Caldwell both acted like they were reading a link between your magic and me," Piper said, slowly.

"I recharge your arm regularly when we don't have time to wait."

"My arm wasn't on me, Wynn."

Wynn waved dismissively. "Links are complicated. Anyone I work on regularly would read like that."

"Were you bonding with Anita when our unit formed?"

"No." Wynn stared at her. "Do you think I would  _ hide _ a bond? Do you think Anita would have?"

Piper pressed her lips together. She wanted to sit down, but Wynn's clothes were taking up the rest of the bed. There wasn't a chair in the room. She missed their quarters on the patrol ship. It wasn't a very big ship, but it was fast, and it got them through the west swamps and the Tyld River with ease. And now it was charred in dry dock and probably wouldn't be repaired for months.

"I think," Piper finally said, "that you hide more things from me than I'd like. I don't like that Edi treated your eye without talking to me. I don't like that I didn't know your eye was damaged in the first place."

"You're not a mage. And you're not a healer. You don't get to make decisions for me, at a hospital or in the field."

"You consulted Anita about your injuries. When we went to Blue Falls after Ward and you fell down that ravine—"

"I had a concussion. I didn't think I was going to remember what the healers told me. That's why I pulled Anita in." Wynn narrowed her eye. "Why are you so bent up over this? I saw the Lead Healer here and she said I would be fine."

"Anita always…"

"You know what Anita always did? Listened to me. You want me to talk to you? I told you, I have a theory. I think whichever of the bandits cast the spell must have been using crystals to enhance the magic. It would explain why I reacted so strongly to it, and why the crystals in your arm reacted, too. I think." Wynn glanced at the end of her bed and Piper spotted a thick book on her pillow. "I'm going to ask some of the students about it tomorrow."

Piper rubbed her hand over her face. When she opened her eyes again, Wynn was suddenly standing in front of her, frowning. Piper jumped, her shoulders bumping against the door.

Wynn touched two fingers to her temple. "Do you have a headache?" she accused. Because only Wynn could accuse someone of being sick.

For the sake of peace, Piper did not say,  _ I'm on my way to one. _ Instead she let Wynn press gently on several points across her head — both temples, her jawline, and briefly between her eyes — until the beginnings of her headache dissolved. Along with the twist in her gut. She probably shouldn't have let Wynn use her magic for that. It probably wasn't worth it.

She caught Wynn's hand in hers and kissed the inside of her wrist. Wynn went still. Mmm. The hospital soap smelled like oranges.

"I don't want to fight," Piper murmured, barely lifting her lips from Wynn's skin. "I don't like seeing you hurt. And I don't… I don't like that both Edi and Caldwell could tell that your magic is linked to me, and I can't."

"You're not a mage. It's normal. It's just what happens when you treat the same person over and over." Wynn swallowed. Piper didn't look at her face, but Wynn didn't pull her hand away, either. "It even took time for my links to the others to fade, after."

Piper kissed her wrist again. She thought she heard Wynn suck in a sharp breath.

"We would both be feeling symptoms if... If the link changed. If a bond started to form," Wynn rushed, her voice a little higher. "If you bond with a magic user, even if you're not one, you can draw magic into yourself. You could recharge your arm much faster. And we… we'd be able to feel where each other were. An advanced bond involves a psychic link. We'd know. I can't lie about something like that."

When Piper looked up Wynn's eye was wet again.

"If I'd been bonded with Anita, I could have warned everyone when she was attacked. We wouldn't have been surprised. Lucille and Ward would have… And you'd still…" Wynn looked at her, helpless.  _ "Piper _ . _ " _

"It wasn't your fault, Wynn. It wasn't any of our faults." Piper released her wrist to pull Wynn up against her.

Wynn balled her fists up in Piper's shirt. She put her face on Piper's shoulder and trembled for a minute, while the fabric on Piper's shoulder grew damp. 

Her hair smelled like oranges, too.

Eventually Wynn stopped shaking and pulled away. She wiped her face on her sleeves. Her shoulders sagged. "It's my job to keep you safe, too."

Piper let out a breath. "I'm sorry for getting upset."

Wynn waved her off. "I'm not hiding things. It was just more important to get you into treatment."

They weren't going to agree about that. "We'll work on a better system for checking in before we leave Green Meadow. Tonight…" She hesitated, then drew herself up straight. "Tonight, we both need to sleep."

Wynn looked at the floor. "Yes."

Piper made sure she shut the door behind her. As she walked down the hall toward her own room, she thought she heard footsteps, but no one was there when she came around the corner.

***

It was some ungodly hour of the morning when Wynn woke up, sweating.

For a minute, she just lay in bed struggling to get her breath under control and wondering why she was looking out an open window instead of the rounded viewing glass that had been set into her room in the ship. Then, she remembered; she wasn't on the ship. The ship was in dry dock. It was why the air filtering in through the window smelled like grass and leaves and not salt.

It was why, when she sat up abruptly, the room spun around her. She had to squeeze her eyes shut and count to ten before she could put her feet on the floor. When she tried opening her eyes again, her bad one flared in pain. She fumbled in the dark for the patch she'd left on the end table.

After that, she did manage to get steady on her feet and out into the hall. She’d pulled on her boots but didn't bother with socks or with a robe. The bathroom was only a few doors down.

She washed her face and ran her wet hands through her hair. It hadn't been a nightmare. The ship had really burned. She'd really cried all over Piper. Damn.

Her head hung as she exited the bathroom, which was why she didn't see it coming.

A face, partially hidden by a scarf, flashed in front of her just as a gloved hand wrapped around her mouth and yanked her back against another person's chest.

Wynn immediately thrashed, but a sharp, magic shock ran over her spine and she could only freeze, blinking against the sudden rush of power. It was so thick it shut down Wynn’s reflexes. suffocating magic. In addition to the scarf, the person in front of her wore a hat pulled down low, shading their eyes in the dim hallway. They nodded silently and motioned for Wynn's captor to follow them down a staircase.

Her captor grunted with the effort of hauling Wynn down the stairs. Wynn's entire spine felt stiff and immobile. She could barely support her own weight, let alone move her legs. Or scream for help.

They passed through a well-lit exterior path to reach an unmarked carriage. No Dynasty shield. No noble markings. Not even the seal of a magical academy. Whoever had her was on their own.

And, as she was shoved into the carriage head-first, Wynn saw one other thing: the inside of her captor's wrist.

She had a sinking feeling that no Dynasty academy marked its students with an apple blossom.

***

Piper told three students that the seat next to her was taken before she decided Wynn wasn't coming down to breakfast.

Sighing, she bent to finish her eggs. Maybe Wynn was angry at her, after all. It wouldn't be the first time that Wynn stayed up all night, working herself into anger about something that had been fine before bed. If that was the case…

It could also be that Wynn simply didn't want to see her right now. They hadn't talked about the others in months. She hadn't… No, she'd known that Wynn blamed herself. Piper blamed herself, too. But she'd thought that Wynn at least knew, logically, that the blame was misplaced.

Their rooms were several floors up from the cafeteria. Piper walked against the morning tide of students filtering to classes, stepping to the side a few times to allow them passage. She carried a small paper bag with her. When she'd returned her plate, the kitchen staff had given her a custard pastry to bring to Wynn, in case she was hungry after all.

The hallway where their rooms were was deserted. Piper knocked twice at Wynn’s door. No one answered. Frowning, she leaned against the wall. Several minutes passed and Wynn didn't emerge from the bathroom down the hallway, either.

The door slid open with no resistance when she touched the handle — it hadn't been shut all the way in the first place, let alone locked. Piper tensed, staring at the gap into the room. But there was no time to wait, and she stepped inside.

The room was only in minor disrepair. Wynn had piled all of her clean laundry on top of her bag. The book she'd been studying lay on the end table. Her covers were kicked back, and socks were draped over the footboard. It looked exactly like every room Wynn ever stayed in.

Except … no Wynn.

***

"Have you seen Wynn?" Piper asked without preamble.

Edi leveled a sharp look at her. There was a professor and a student in her office. The professor raised an eyebrow and the student sagged back into his chair in obvious relief for whatever Piper had interrupted.

"No, Lady Piper," Edi said. "I'd also thank you to knock first next time."

"Wynn isn't in her rooms. The kitchen staff haven't seen her. The groundskeepers haven't either. Neither have the students she was speaking with yesterday — I found several of them on their way to first period."

That did make Edi's expression change. "Scott, come back at lunch," she ordered. The student jumped up and fled. The professor sighed and shook her head. Edi gestured at the empty seat, which Piper reluctantly took. "What makes you think that there's cause for alarm?"

"All of her things are in her room, except her night clothes and shoes," Piper said. "She always puts her shoes on before leaving her bed when we're staying somewhere with a common bathroom. And her door was unlocked."

"Did you try the library?" the professor suggested. When Piper shook her head, the professor walked over to the scrying mirror in the corner. She made a gesture and the image of a man at a desk appeared. He looked startled when he realized someone was calling him. "Richard," the professor asked, "did you have a guest healer visit this morning?"

"Gina, you're the first person I've seen since I got here."

The connection blinked out, and the professor turned around. "Unless she's attending a class…"

"We have some security measures in place," Edi murmured. "Normally they are used for children who wander off when someone looks away."

Gina moved aside to grant Edi access to the scrying mirror. Piper watched and understood none of the gestures Edi was making. She also didn't recognize any of the chanting. It didn't usually bother her that she didn't have an in-depth familiarity with magic. She'd always served in a unit with a mage, like Ward, who could provide that kind of support. It was clear that if she and Wynn were going to remain a two-person unit for much longer, she needed to do some studying.

It took several minutes to get a result. Piper watched Edi for most of it, but eventually had to look out the window. She hated waiting. The wind was high on the campus that morning: she could see trees bending against its force.

Finally, Edi turned to face her. "Healer Wynn is not on the grounds of Green Meadow."

***

Once they were off the hospital grounds, Efa removed the scarf from her face. Whenever it looked like Wynn was stirring too much, she shocked her again. Each shock was worse than the last. It wasn't painful, exactly, but the crystal Efa used kept flooding Wynn's magical systems until she couldn't hold any more. It felt like her body just shut down against the onslaught.

Eventually, Wynn woke up with feeling back in her hands but too much stiffness to even consider moving.

She flinched when the other woman pulled her hair away from her face. "There, there, little thing," she murmured. She lifted Wynn's eye patch and clicked her tongue disapprovingly when Wynn cringed. "That's not going to do at all."

This woman still had her scarf over her face. Wynn had no idea who was driving the carriage, but whenever it slowed, the woman turned away from the window. So far no one had insisted on opening the door.

"Efa, help me get her up," the woman said.

Efa started to protest, and the woman glared at her. Together, they got Wynn propped up in the corner, breathing hard just from the exertion of being moved around. Gods, she needed to get on her feet and stretch.

"Tell me about your eye," the woman said.

Wynn glared at her.

Efa reached across the small carriage and grabbed her wrist, hard. Wynn had to bite her cheek to keep from crying out. "Do as she says," she ordered.

Wynn swallowed her scream and panted out, "You're not a knight at all." Which might have had more of an effect if Efa hadn't just laughed at her.

"Oh, you haven't figured it out?" The woman hummed and shrugged. "I suppose we're far enough away that no one who tries to stop us out here would recognize me."

She reached up and took the scarf down from her face.

Wynn stared and then lunged forward. "You asshole!" she snarled, lifting her hands as much as she could. She was pretty sure she saw Efa raise her crystal again, but Iris caught her by the shoulders and shoved her — hard — against the corner of the carriage. Wynn's head bounced off the wood and made the vision in her good eye go blurry for a moment.

"Hold still or I'll have to let Efa take care of you. Again," Iris ordered. She must have lied about being a mage, too, if she couldn't use the restraint magic herself. But she was strong enough that she easily held Wynn in place until she stopped squirming, too tired to keep fighting. "Now. Tell me about your eye. When will you be restored?"

Wynn tried to concentrate on anything other than how badly she wanted to lie down. Her back hurt so much. "Healer Edi said two nights. So not until at least tomorrow."

"Mmm. Not ideal, but I can work with it." Iris patted her cheek. "Buck up, little thing. We only need you for a week."

"A  _ week?" _

"You're going to help out some of our friends, and then, you're going to help us." Iris laughed when Wynn gaped at her. "It won't be so bad. You'll be using your magic the way you're meant to — healing people! And getting us past some pesky healers-only security."

Wynn shifted uncomfortably. Her heartbeat was starting to calm down. But there was no way she could fight her way out of this carriage. The curtains on the windows were drawn shut, so she didn't even know where they were.

"I'm not going to help you." She scowled. "You can't make me."

Efa grinned. "What, you're going to let us present you someone burned and bloody and not help them?" she asked. Wynn faltered, and she snorted, stretching herself out along her bench. "Healers are so easy."

"That is why we're going in through the hospital," Iris murmured.

"Going in where?" Wynn asked.

Iris just tapped her finger against her lips. "We'll get to that in time. Relax, little thing. On my word, Efa won't shock you again unless you start to give us trouble."

***

The hospital had no security to lend to Piper. However, there was a knight on the grounds who was being discharged that day after recuperating from an infection. The knight's bonded mage had arrived on campus that morning to retrieve her. Both of them agreed to assist.

Piper had also wanted to take Lady Iris with her, but she wasn't in her rooms. Nor had she reported for her first or second period classes. One of the other students said she'd seen Iris talking a walk the night before, but that she hadn't been at breakfast that morning. Piper thanked him for the news and swallowed a scream.

She fired off a message to Doveport for confirmation of Iris's credentials but was pretty sure what she would hear back: no knight, no mage by that name. The message wouldn't be returned until later, though, and they needed to move.

Wynn knew how to defend herself. There had to be more than one person involved in this. Wynn had only known basic self-defense when she'd arrived with Anita, but Ward wasn’t about to cart around somebody who didn't know how to use a knife. He'd forced Wynn to study with him near daily until she could cut her way out of most small altercations. Whoever this was would never have been able to take her without magic or directly from her room, where her knife had been left with her bag.

"Lady Piper," Lady Olivia said, when Piper met them at the stables. The hospital was lending them three horses.

Lady Olivia was from the mountains. She was short and broad, and the woman standing next to her was different only in coloring. Olivia had pale hair and the other woman dark. She inclined her head as Piper approached. "My name is Warden Petra."

"Warden," Piper answered, startled. She glanced between them. "I… am honored by your offer of assistance."

Olivia grinned at her expression. She hadn't mentioned her mage was a  _ Warden _ .

There weren't many Wardens in the Dynasty. Wardens oversaw the mages in different provinces of the kingdom, had teaching privileges at all the magical academies, and could apprentice any magic users they found during their travels.  Wynn herself had been brought to a hospital for training after meeting a Warden during her childhood.

"Sir Antonio is my cousin. If word reaches Blue Falls that one of his healers was taken and I did not assist, he would… be displeased," Petra said, the corner of her mouth turning up.

Piper had met Sir Antonio — once. She wouldn't want to displease him either. She also had the feeling that maybe Petra wanted to say something more like  _ pitch a fit _ , which was what Wynn always said when threatening to report someone  to the Lead Healer of Blue Falls.

"Do you have any theories on why someone might have taken Wynn?" Olivia asked.

"The only people we've encountered recently were the bandits that burned our ship." Piper shook her head. "I keep going over it. They were trying to get into our cabin, but the door was locked. We found them when we were coming down from the captain's quarters. I didn't… At the time, this didn't seem important, but they went after Wynn before they went after me."

Petra made a thoughtful sound. Olivia shook her head and began loading Petra's small bag onto the horse she'd been allocated. Petra watched Piper do the same but didn't speak again until they were all on their horses. Edi had been able to pinpoint that Wynn left the grounds via a delivery route that cut through an herb garden at the back of the campus.

They rode out. Petra stared ahead. "The other Wardens have reported some attempted thefts lately. Stores broken into but nothing taken."

"Why would someone break in and not take anything?"

"Because what they were looking for wasn't there," Olivia said.

Piper frowned. "You think they took Wynn because they want her help finding something?"

"I think they need her help sneaking into a place they can't get into on their own. The stores that were broken into were part of small armories, for emergency defenses. The military Wardens haven't been robbed yet." Petra steered them toward the herb garden. "The would-be thieves mostly rummaged through explosive materials, but what they wanted has never been something non-military Wardens keep at their hospitals or academies."

Piper raised both eyebrows and waited.

Olivia cleared her throat. "She's talking about combat-grade crystals."

"Those," Petra said, sighing, "are only grown in Val Caverns. Nowhere else stores them. Only active knighthood-mage units carry them. They're too unstable to be handled or stored otherwise. The Empire has had very limited luck with growing their own."

"It wouldn't be  _ im _ possible to get to the Cavern armory through their hospital," Olivia added.

A combat-grade crystal would definitely crush the medical-grade ones that powered her arm, too.

Piper was  _ absolutely _ going to make Iris — whoever she really was — answer for this.


	2. Chapter 2

Four people were laid out in the mess hall of Iris's ship. Cots had been set out for the injured crew and there was an operating table with a clean cover on it at the back of the room. They were all suffering from burns.

"Which one of you set our ship on fire and got all your friends burned?" Wynn asked.

Efa grabbed her wrist and hauled her over to the operating table, where a man was already laid out. Wynn immediately recognized the injuries. Those were slashes from a blade. That was a stab wound in his abdomen, where Piper favored attacking people who were stupid enough not to wear leather or armor when they went up against her. Judging from the extremely basic first aid that'd already been administered… Efa was their only magic-user and, in addition to apparently having terrible fire blast aim, had no healing training. It was a wonder this man was still alive.

"Your job today is to heal all of our crew until they can walk again," Efa said.

"I don't have the energy to do this. Not for all of them. It's why my eye hasn't recovered yet."

A sigh from behind her. Wynn tensed. Iris walked across the room slowly and circled the table until she was standing directly across from them.

"You will do this for me or I'll kill him," she said.

Wynn gaped. "He's your person! Why would you kill him?"

"Because I don't allow my people to suffer." Iris glanced at Efa, and Wynn felt the crystal press into her back. She went involuntarily still, so tense that she was holding her breath. It wasn't fair. "I'll kill him to put him out of his misery. Then we'll move onto the next patient. You'll either heal them, or I'll kill them. And if I have no crew left, Wynn… Efa gets to take care of you."

Efa smirked.

The man was in too much pain to even open his eyes. She wasn't entirely sure he was conscious. And the burns on his skin, radiating up from his hands, suggested he'd been up close when Efa had set fire to the ship.

"I can't do this alone," she finally said. "I don't know where anything is and I'll need help cleaning their wounds before I can start trying to heal any of them."

"Efa can assist you," Iris said. She latched onto Wynn's hand and kissed her knuckles, which Wynn only barely managed not to deck her for. "Take care of my people, little thing. I'll be back to check on you soon. I do hope you're still standing."

***

It wasn't possible to reach Val Caverns over land. As soon as they hit the nearest branch of the Tyld River, they boarded a sleek ship. It was less comfortable than the one Piper had spent the last few months on. The captain had a small office, but the only sheltered common space was a room just big enough to fit them and the bare-bones crew. If Piper hadn't spotted mage tattoos on all their wrists, she would have serious doubts about the ship staying afloat in an emergency.

"There are two main routes to Val Caverns from here. And one very stupid route." Olivia spread a map out on the table between them.

Petra let out an undignified snort. "We are, I assume, taking the very stupid route?"

"No. We're taking the second route, which will get us ahead of anyone taking the very stupid route." Olivia traced two different lines along the map of the salt marshes that bordered this portion of the Tyld River. "The first route is too obvious and brings you to the mouth of Val Caverns. Not subtle at all."

"I feel like these people aren't subtle," Petra said.

"They did set my ship on fire."

"Yes, but if they could get in the front door, they wouldn't have kidnapped help." Olivia tapped the route they were on. "Now, this is the main route to the hospital end of the caverns. But it's too heavily trafficked to risk smuggling a person through. Hence, the stupid route. It's shallow and difficult to navigate."

Piper studied the map. The route they were on arced seemingly away from Val Caverns… except the mouth of the caverns led to an underground network of caves that had, over many centuries, been fortified by different successions of the Dynasty. It had originally been a retreat for the Queen, but had slowly morphed into a military stronghold. Now it was the seat of weapons research for the entire Dynasty.

Their route intersected with the 'very stupid' route just before reaching the side entrance to the caverns, a man-made tunnel connected to the hospital wing. If Olivia was right about which way Iris had taken Wynn, there was a decent chance they could beat them to the juncture.

Piper clenched and unclenched her right hand. She didn't like barrelling into a combat situation without her mechanical arm, but testing out a unit she'd never worked with at a time like this was worse than fighting one-handed. Besides, she'd sparred with Iris, and unless she'd been holding something back, her technique wasn't anything to write home about.

"I can't believe I actually thought that woman was a knight," she muttered. She tapped the juncture on the map. "Once we reach this point, what's the plan?"

"This ship is small enough to hide behind some of the hanging trees by the banks. It'll make approaching any passing ships difficult, but I think it's worth it for the surprise factor," Olivia said. "From there we'll board them."

Petra waved vaguely. "I consulted with the captain. There have been no official trips filed along this other route. Any ship coming out of there will be suspicious. And I'll be scanning for combat crystals. From what you described, it's likely they have a small one already."

"If Wynn isn't on the ship…"

"Then we've made a rather embarrassing mistake. I'll distribute some cash and we'll proceed to Val Caverns. While you two plan how you would like to handle these bandits, I'll use the captain's scry mirror to connect to the Warden there." Petra smiled, slowly, and got an answering smile on her knight's face. "Honestly, they should hope that they meet us first."

Piper exhaled. "No," she said, fist clenched again. "They shouldn't."

That made Petra smile even wider.

Piper kissed the back of her hand, gratefully, and took a few calming breaths as she left the room and Olivia began describing the combat capabilities of the ship and its crew. Olivia herself was a dual-sword fighter, which would be interesting to see in person.

The ship slowed as traffic appeared on the river. The captain assured them they would still get to their destination on time. He had a lot of faith in his ship.

When he left, Olivia rolled up the map. Then, she met Piper's eyes and asked the question that Piper had been waiting for since they left Green Meadow. "Are you going to be able to fight with only one arm?"

"I've done it before," Piper murmured. "I nearly killed one of them after they set the ship on fire  _ and _ broke my left arm. I'm not concerned. I've been living on the water for six months. I have my sea legs, and they definitely didn't."

Olivia nodded. "May I ask… what happened?"

Piper sighed. She'd found that it was easier to tell people an abbreviated story than to try to skirt around it. "We were stationed on the border between the Dynasty and the Empire. This was last year, when things were quiet. We were there when the first skirmish in months erupted. We were ambushed, and… Our captain, the other knight in our party, and our squire were all killed."

"Gods."

"I nearly had my arm cleaved off when the attackers reached Wynn and me — we'd been at the other end of our camp when we heard the fighting break out and had to get some civilians under cover. Wynn tried to heal it, but there was too much damage." Piper rubbed her hand over her face. "Do you know what the worst of it is?"

Olivia raised her eyebrows.

"I told Iris all of this. We took a walk together yesterday afternoon. She seemed curious."

"We're going to get Wynn back, Piper."

"We are. And when she's safe, I'm going to haul Iris into Val Caverns myself."

Olivia let out a sound almost like a laugh. "They haven't used the prison in Val Caverns in fifty years."

"I think we have a fair chance of convincing their Warden to open it again."

***

Efa didn't need to restrain her when she was finished. Wynn simply collapsed in a chair. She didn't even try to get up when Efa left. For all she knew, the door was unlocked for the next hour or so. She was just too tired to find out for sure.

The gentle rocking of the ship as it cut through the water was familiar and comforting. They were in the salt marshes; Wynn could smell it. Eventually, the smell started to fade. They must have turned away from the marshes back onto the main flow of the Tyld River.

The sound of the door opening made Wynn open her eyes. Had she slept? If she had, her body didn't feel any better for it. She couldn't even muster the energy to stand when she saw it was Iris who had entered.

"You did well. And you didn't even die! You were so sure you didn't have it in you," Iris said, meandering across the room.

Efa and another crew member had removed all the patients, one by one, as they'd been healed. The room was empty, if messy. The operating table was bloody, and so were the cots. She'd had to debride most of the burns before doing anything magical to them, because apparently everyone on this ship was incompetent. Wynn said as much, which made Iris laugh loudly.

"I came to set you up for the night," Iris said, clasping her arms behind her back. "You deserve a reward for your cooperation. We've got a clean cot to bring you."

Wynn pulled her legs up into her chair. She wanted to go back to almost-sleep.

"Tomorrow, you'll need to clean up. We'll have to present our best faces when we arrive at Val Caverns."

Now Wynn was awake. She gripped the arms of the chair. This had been why Efa had asked her about the caverns the day before. "Are you  _ suicidal?" _ she whispered. "That's the hospital you want to rob? The healing wing of the Dynasty's biggest weapons and combat magic research facility?"

"We're not robbing the hospital. We’ve already tried that, and it didn't work — your hospitals only keep a small store of testing materials on-site. No, no. We just need to get into the facility  _ through _ the hospital. Which means we need a healer."

"No. I won't help you steal from Val Caverns. Not weapons!"

The amusement left Iris's face. "You don't have a choice. Get to your feet."

Wynn gripped the arms of the chair hard enough that Iris had to physically draw her fingers back from the wood to get her out of it. Then she spun Wynn and yanked her flat against her chest, bracing her there with a hand over her throat. It hurt and made it hard to breathe. Her good eye teared up.

"Lady Piper is not coming for you, little thing. Or she would be here by now." Iris pressed her nails sharp against Wynn's throat when Wynn tried to jerk away. "Ah, ah, none of that. You know as well as I do that Piper is not going to rescue you."

"You're a fucking liar, and a bad one," Wynn spat. She had to tilt her chin all the way up to have room to breathe. "Piper would've started off after me the instant she realized I was gone!"

"Without her arm?" Iris asked, shaking her head. "Recovering from injuries  _ you _ weren't able to heal… again?"

Wynn froze.

"See, I know why your dear knight lost her arm, Wynn. It's because  _ you _ didn't measure up. And you still don't." Iris let go and let her fall against the operating table. When Wynn was able to turn around, Iris had her arms crossed over her chest and was smiling at her. "If she was coming after you, we would've known by now. But the water is quiet, isn't it?"

Wynn couldn't stop her eye from watering. She was so tired. That was all. It was a struggle to stand; of course she was crying. She braced herself on the table, her hand hitting a scalpel.

"Piper informed me that she lost her arm after an ambush. You used to be stationed on the plains, yes? Near the border? You fought My Lady's army," Iris murmured, the smile widening at Wynn's flinch. "Did you think that anyone but the Empire would be trying to steal Dynasty combat crystals, Wynn? Really. This is why Piper wasn't going to keep you, you know."

Wynn shook her head. "Shut up."

"She told me that you were going to be resorted into new units when you went back to the capitol. You don't think she'd stay attached to the healer who couldn't save her arm, mmm? Her captain, her friend, her squire? You let them all die. Piper is lucky you didn't let her die, too."

Wynn curled her hand over the scalpel and struck — the way Ward had taught her.

Unfortunately, Iris was faster. Wynn managed to slice a hole open in her arm, but Iris knocked the scalpel out of her weak grip and bodily slammed her down against the operating table. She grabbed Wynn's hair and wrapped it around her hand before Wynn's vision even cleared.

"If you're not careful,  _ Healer _ , I won't keep you either," Iris snapped. She yanked Wynn up by her hair until she couldn't help but scream. "Fix this abominable cut or I swear to My Lady, I'll throw you overboard."

It took two minutes and nearly the last of Wynn's energy, but she closed the wound.

Then Iris forced her over to the corner. She tied Wynn to her chair and pushed her ruffled hair out of her face. "Think about whether you want to behave for me at Val Caverns," she ordered. "I'll be back in the morning for your answer."

***

It was full dark. Val Caverns had not scried back to say they'd noticed any infiltration. They had soldiers in healers' uniforms patrolling the hospital, and Warden Renata herself was reportedly staying overnight in the hospital wing as an additional precaution.

Piper got in a few fitful hours of sleep. She had dark, cloying dreams and wished she had stayed awake. Wynn with her hands in blood tending to strangers. Wynn frozen in place, tied up with magic, unable to move. Wynn tied, physically, to a chair. Piper woke up with sweat on her skin. She didn't need her mind running worst case scenarios while she tried to rest. So, she got to her feet and slunk out to the deck before either Olivia or Petra.

"Wynn," she murmured, bracing herself on the rail of the ship. "Hold on for me."

The captain parked them behind the trailing branches of trees at the bank. The ship bumped against the land whenever another ship passed, disturbing the water. Otherwise, Piper imagined that it would be difficult to realize that the shadow behind the trees was anything substantial. The crew had snuffed out all the lights.

Olivia came out in leather armor much like Piper's own, carrying two swords. She smiled when Piper looked them up and down. "If you're interested, I can give you a better look at them later."

"I've never seen a dual sword fighter in the field before."

"It's quite magnificent," Petra interrupted, gliding out to the rail to join them.

She had changed into a tunic without sleeves and Piper had to resist staring. Instead of a single tattoo at her wrist, she had an entire column of flowers and plants stretching up the insides of both her arms. It was hard to tell by moonlight exactly what all the plants were, but Piper had to assume that there was some kind of conjuring advantage that the tattoos gave her.

"Two of the captain's crew will join you on deck once the ship appears," Petra said. She laced her fingers together and watched the water. "We've sent the youngest of them away in a small boat. She'll continue on to Val Caverns should something untoward occur."

"What will you do?" Piper asked.

"Hold the ship," Petra said. She smiled. "I trust you, Olivia, and the captain's mages will be able to hold your own without me. But that ship won't move until I release it."

Olivia cleared her throat. "We'll apologize profusely if it's the wrong ship, of course."

"I'm scanning for a combat crystal and a healer's magic," Petra protested. "If it's the wrong ship you should arrest them anyway."

Olivia bowed her head, eyes twinkling. "Yes, Warden."

Petra said something in reply, but Piper wasn't listening. She was leaning over the railing and staring down the river. The only light was moonlight, but she still thought she saw something in the distance… And heat flared in her chest the longer she looked down the water.

"Warden. Lady," Piper murmured, snapping them both into silence. "I think they're coming."

Olivia frowned, confused, but there was sudden, sharp interest on Petra's face. In the far distance, a dark spot lit up as a ship came just barely into view, its leading lamp shining against the night.

***

Wynn couldn't sleep. Every time she managed to relax, the rope around her wrists rubbed painfully against her skin or someone coming down the hall shouted or the ship bumped into the riverbank. Finally, she resorted to pulling one of her legs up so she could rest her forehead on her knee. Gods, if she ever got out of here, all she would do was lie flat on the ground.

The damned eye patch was itching like mad, too.

She didn't know what she was going to do in the morning. If she outright refused to help, Iris would probably kill her. Except… would she? Or would she kill off her own still-recuperating crew until Wynn agreed to go into the Caverns with them? What kind of leader could command loyalty with that kind of threat?

Wynn was ashamed to admit that she wouldn't be able to let Iris kill those people. If it came down to it, she should, but she… she just couldn't.

Efa had only used blunt force magic up until that point, too, but surely they had a plan for getting Wynn into the Caverns without her screaming the place down. What would she do if Efa took her over, magically, once they got inside? What  _ could _ she do?

All roads seemed to lead to Iris walking out of the Caverns with combat crystals. It was unacceptable. But Wynn couldn't think of a way around it.

She tried to imagine what Piper would do but could only hear her saying,  _ Hold on, _ in response. Which fell short of encouraging in how unhelpful it was. What was she supposed to  _ do _ ?

The door opened, and Iris leaned against the frame, regarding her silently.

Wynn refused to raise her head. "It's not morning."

"We've made better progress than expected. I believe there's a hospital shift that starts three hours past midnight?" Iris waited, then sighed. She stepped into the room and shut the door firmly behind her. "Wynn."

"If you already know, you don't need me to tell you."

"Fine. I'm going to bring you a new uniform and you're going to clean yourself up. Once we're in the hospital you will wait for us at a designated area. Make yourself look like a sleeping resident, whatever will go unnoticed," Iris said, shrugging. "When we return, you'll escort us out."

Wynn frowned. It felt like the ship was slowing. But she had been living on a ship for half a year now, and if Iris had similar experience, she didn't seem alarmed by the sudden reduction in speed. Maybe they were already at Val Caverns after all. Damn. She had wasted all her time — she didn't have a single idea of what to do, other than go along with whatever Iris said and hope for an opportunity.

Iris walked to the middle of the room, stopping by the bloody operating table. "Then, we'll have to secure you so you don't ruin our escape, of course, but someone will eventually discover you and I trust you'll be fine."

"How do you know I won't give you away when we're inside?"

"I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, little thing. Now, before I fetch your uniform — skirt or pants?"

Wynn spat on the floor.

"Fine then," Iris muttered, rolling her eyes. She turned on her heel and started out of the room again. "I'll bring both."

The ship ground to a complete halt before she reached the hall.

That, Iris did notice. "What the hell is going on?" she demanded, yanking the door open.

She didn't close it behind her. Wynn sat all the way up.

***

Gods, Piper wanted to be on a unit with a Warden one day.

She wondered what she would have to do to convince Wynn to help her snag them a posting with a mage. Petra had thrown both her hands up as soon as the ship was close enough for her to sense a healer on board. The ship slid silently, smoothly, to a halt, barely creating a ripple in the water. Now Petra had a fist pressed against an open palm and the ship was frozen. It was far enough off that they couldn't hear what anyone was saying, but the crew had pulled out poles and was trying to push themselves off the bank.

"Remind me what Iris looks like again?"

"Tall, fair. Long hair — she plaited it when we were sparring, but left it loose otherwise."

Petra glanced at them, the first time she'd taken her eyes off the ship. Olivia and Piper were standing at the edge of the rail. Their borrowed mages stood behind them, still and patient. One of them had her hands already raised in an unfamiliar position. Piper hadn't had the chance to work with a lot of combat mages.

"Are you sure," Petra asked, "that you don't want to kill her, Lady Piper?"

"She was smug. I don't want to give her the satisfaction of getting that much of a rise out of me," Piper said. She inhaled — their ship had been inching out of the trees for a few moments now, and someone on the back of the enemy ship had just spotted them.

The mage with the raised hands struck her fingers together. It was probably more elegant than that, but that was what it looked like from the corner of Piper's eye, and the person who'd spotted them stopped moving. Piper couldn't stop herself from letting out a soft whistle.

"They'll know you're coming before we get there — we can't freeze them all, I'm afraid," Petra murmured.

Olivia shrugged. "If we're lucky they'll call everyone on deck to fight and we won't get stuck facing them in close quarters," she said. She ran a hand through her short hair. "All right. Let's all agree — no killing Iris and no killing the accessories unless it's unavoidable. I want to know if they're stupid and alone or stupid and organized."

The mages murmured their agreement.

"We neutralize as many as we can while Piper searches for her healer. You see a dark-haired woman who looks like she's not supposed to be there, forget what you're doing. Grab her and get out. We'll find you later. Got that?"

A minute later, more people on the deck spotted them. By then they were close enough that someone whipped up a fire blast that actually smashed the railing to Piper's right — but one of their mages  _ pushed _ it down into the river.

Somebody fancied themselves an archer on the other ship, too. Piper watched the wind blow an arrow just to her left and smiled. The others jumped first, surer in their landings. But it didn't matter. Piper waited until she was close enough to vault and not risk needing to hang onto the boat with a hand that was currently in a box waiting repair.

As soon as her feet hit the deck, she drew her sword.

***

Wynn bloodied her wrist trying to pull herself free from the chair. The rope was tied so tight that her struggle made the chair hop. Her wrist was bloody, and she hadn't even budged the rope an inch. She was panting for breath. How long had she been awake? How low was her magic? If she only knew some kind of cutting spell…

_ Hold on for me, _ Piper's voice murmured again, from just behind her ear.

It wrenched half a sob out of her before Wynn could clamp her mouth shut. No, no, no, no. Get her injured hand free. Then she could untie her other wrist without bloodying it, too.

Then she could — fuck. Then she could jump into the water?

She could swim. If they really were close to Val Caverns, she could just get onto the banks and walk there.

First, get her hand free. And stop listening to things no one had ever said.

A spark of pain shot up her arm when she tried wrenching her whole body up in an effort to get her hand free. It didn't work, and she had to freeze, sucking in cool air against the pain. For a minute, she could only stare at the floor. The floor Iris had dragged her across. The floor where Iris had thrown the scalpel down.

Wynn swallowed, and pulled her feet over the floor. Her chair hopped an inch forward. Then another.

There were noises coming from above deck that she couldn't quite make out.

***

It wasn't quite as simple as hit the deck running and look for Wynn. There were just enough people to make it crowded, and one of their mages was preoccupied with setting binding spells on anyone unfortunate enough to get their feet kicked out from under them.

Piper smashed into someone, whipped around, and came face-to-face with the 'knight' who'd kissed Wynn's hand in the courtyard without bothering to introduce herself.

Recognition flit across the woman's face — a second too late. Piper had half been looking for her in the fray and didn't need the moment of consideration.

She smashed the pommel of her sword into the crook of the woman's arm and sliced a cut over her forehead as she tried to rock back. The blood fell into her eyes and made her swing go wild. Fire spit out of her fist, lancing across Piper's left side. That was unexpected. She felt the sharp bite of a burn on her ribs, but a quick glance confirmed her clothes hadn't caught. The rest of the fire failed to find an arm to connect with — instead, it floated into the air behind them until the wind winked it out or curled onto the deck.

Piper couldn't think about putting it out. Hopefully it wasn't enough to catch. While the woman tried to bring her hand back down for another blast, Piper shifted into position. She kicked her knee so hard she felt something  _ pop _ as the woman crashed to the deck.

One of the mages smashed someone's face into the ship railing. She didn't even need to bind the man. When she spotted Piper with the advantage, she shot over and stomped on the false knight's hand.

"Get going!" the mage snapped, hands already working a spell. Behind her, a few embers burned on the deck, but the flame wasn't spreading. "I don't want to be on this bloody ship a second longer than we have to."

"Fair enough."

If she'd been Iris, she would have put Wynn into the bridge — far too tied up to actually attempt to take over the ship, but within view of multiple people at any given moment and unable to even try to formulate an escape plan.

Instead of walking up the ship towards the glassed-in bridge, though, Piper ducked down the stairs into crew quarters.

She just had a feeling.

And she  _ wasn't _ Iris.

***

Wynn did make it over to the scalpel. Then she had to tip herself over to get level with it. The hit did not do her any favors. It felt like her teeth rattled, and she couldn't stop her head from bouncing once against the floor.

Was she really going to throw herself off the ship after this? No, one thing at a time. Scalpel. Rope. Then she could make decisions.

Anyway, if she was lucky, it was Val Caverns forces on the deck. She strained and just barely managed to clasp the scalpel with her injured hand. Some frantic wriggling got the blade against the rope, and then she just had to rock back and forth until it frayed enough for her to rip herself out.

Undoing the other rope was easy. Piper had forced her to learn this knot. Wynn remembered it like it was yesterday — like Piper's fingers were on her own, helping her tug and pull until the rope opened up for her.

She rolled forward out of the chair and gave herself three breaths, hunched on the floor. The blood rushing in her ears and the sound of her own breathing was enough to drown out the faint murmur of Piper's voice. It wasn't happening. It was just a memory. Piper had no way of knowing where she was.

Wynn was on her own. She got to her knees.

She tried peeling the patch off her left eye but that was a mistake. The dim light in the mess hall was like getting stabbed. She gasped and let go, the patch falling back into place. Okay. Not time for that. Healing all those people must have set her back even further than she thought.

On her feet. Then she could figure out whether she was going overboard.

***

"She's not here."

Piper faltered and Iris took the opening, smashing her staff into Piper's face. It made her stumble back against the narrow wall of the lower hallway, and she only managed to avoid getting bashed again because she let herself fall to the floor. Blood dripped onto her shirt as she darted out of Iris's range.

Iris laughed instead of advancing. She spun her staff in one hand and held it so each end tapped the wall. It wouldn't be easy to get past her. "Did you really think I'd be this easy to find  _ and _ your little thing would be here with me?"

"I honestly didn't think you were that smart," Piper muttered, wiping at her face. Gods, her nose was probably broken. "Are you sure you were this easy to find on purpose?"

Iris struck with her staff, and Piper just barely managed to avoid it. She was losing ground. Iris had been at the other end of the hall when she'd entered and had run up to meet her in the middle as soon as she'd gotten a decent look at Piper's face. Now, she'd backed up twice and there was only so much space left before Iris would be driving her up the stairs. If she got Piper's sword out of her hand…

The light caught a strip of newly healed pink skin on Iris's arm, easy to spot with her sleeves rolled up. "I know what my  _ little thing's _ handiwork looks like, Iris," Piper said, managing to cut a notch into her staff. "What she'd do, scratch you? Cut you?"

"Maybe. And maybe I drowned her for her trouble."

Piper's vision briefly went dark in her left eye. It roared back after a split second, the light stabbing pain into her skull. It didn't matter. She'd struck without needing to look or think about it and cut a stripe across Iris's stomach before the woman knew what was happening.

Iris howled, clutching at her stomach and swinging hard to keep Piper from getting any closer. It wasn't a deep cut — there wasn't enough blood, and Iris was still standing. Anyway, Piper would have felt if her sword had sunk in that far. But it was enough that Iris had to sag against the wall, and Piper got an unblocked view to the end of the hallway.

Her mouth went dry.

"All you fucking Dynasty assholes," Iris spat, pushing herself back onto her feet. She swayed, and Piper held her sword in front of her, taking half a step back. Iris swiped at empty space and shuffled forward. "Cutting up the godsdamned earth to get at crystals, rerouting godsdamned rivers to dry out cursed fucking caverns. Who the hell puts a fortress in a cavern?"

"People who don't like to be robbed," Piper muttered.

The vision was going in and out of her left eye. It hurt so much every time it came back. It was hard not to turn the left side of her face into the shadow. But it was important to watch Iris's face, her shoulders, the placement of her feet. When Iris shook her head, Piper flicked her blade at Iris's hands. Iris snarled and landed a smack against Piper's still-bleeding nose. Fuck!

"It's not my fault you can't figure out how to break into a place on your own," Piper said. "Isn't that what you Empire folk like to do?"

"You would know, wouldn't you?" Iris deliberately swung her staff through the air where Piper's left arm would be, if it was still there. The motion made her lean forward. "Isn't that how you lost this?"

Wynn took that moment to bring both of her fists down on the back of Iris's head.

Threads of golden magic flared around her hands, and Iris gasped, the magic flowing across her cheeks and into her open mouth as she sunk down to the floor. When her head hit the wood she was already breathing like she'd just collapsed into sleep.

Then Wynn wobbled and tipped forward, and Piper had to dart forward to catch her. She twisted to the side so Wynn fell against her left side, and it didn't matter that her arm was in a box, because Wynn reflexively grabbed onto Piper's shirt to keep herself upright. Piper couldn't let go of her sword and couldn't grab onto Wynn in return, but she  _ could _ kiss her forehead, briefly, the vision completely back in her left eye and her breath hardly in her chest.

"What did you do?" she whispered, taking a moment to inhale. Wynn's hair didn't smell like oranges anymore.

Wynn swallowed. "Last-resort magic push. I used an anesthesia spell. You — you came. H-How did you find me?"

"Later." Piper had looked down and seen the blood on Wynn's wrist and if she didn't leave now she was going to kick an unconscious woman in the face. "I was told you get you off this ship the second I had you."

"I really don't want to jump into the river," Wynn blurted.

"I promise I won't make you jump into the river."

***

Piper brought Wynn back to the Warden's ship. The rest of the team stayed on board the Empire ship to restrain everyone left worth restraining. Olivia was the captain until they could get everyone into Val Caverns. When Piper and Wynn headed down into the ship, she could hear people arguing about whether to continue to the hospital wing where Warden Renata still was or turn around and use the front entrance, where there'd be more military to greet them.

She didn't care. Wynn was swaying on her feet. She'd asked three times how Piper had found her, but not once who the people around them were.

Piper maneuvered her into a relatively private room — only two bunks, and the occupants all on the Empire ship. Wynn fell backwards onto one of the beds and immediately shut her eyes.

Sighing, Piper bent over her. "You can't go to sleep."

"Watch me," Wynn muttered, reluctantly opening her good eye.

Piper wanted to check what was under the eye patch but decided she should save that until last. She inhaled and gripped Wynn's chin instead, stopping her from turning her head away when she said, "I need to check you over."

"I'm fine."

"You're holding your arm like it's broken."

Wynn's eye went unfocused for a second. Then she struggled to sit up and looked down at herself. "No one broke my arm," she said, even though she had it clutched to her chest and winced when it moved. "It just … it hurts. I hit Iris hard, I must have…" she stopped, her voice trailing off.

Piper hesitated, then said, "Can I see? Please."

Getting Wynn's shirt off was a struggle. The healer ground her teeth against the effort of not making a noise while Piper unlaced her shirt and tried to pull it up and over her head. The effort of getting the shirt up and over Wynn's left arm made her shout at one point and then bite her lip. Piper only let her until she managed to get the cuff off Wynn's wrist, and then she cupped Wynn's face in her hand.

"Hey," she murmured, tracing her thumb over Wynn's cheek. "Stop. Breathe. Relax for me, Wynn."

"It s-shouldn't hurt. I didn't do anything to it."

"How's my left eye look?" Piper asked.

Wynn faltered and raised her head, confused. There was just a slight ease of tension in her body. Her arm was intact, although her wrists and hands were worriedly stained with blood. But there was a strip of irritated skin on her left arm. And from the expression on her face as she examined Piper, it was obvious that something was visibly different about Piper's left eye, too. At least the pain wasn't so bad — Piper was used to pain. It was just the black dots, popping in and then fading slowly out, that worried her.

Wynn touched her face, next to her eye, and Piper let herself lean into it. "Did someone hit you? Did you get something in your eye?" she asked, baffled. "I don't…"

"It started hurting when Iris was taunting me. My vision kept going in and out." It was so tempting to close her eyes and see if Wynn would lay down on the bed with her. What were the odds no one would come looking for them? "It doesn't hurt so much now. The vision isn't completely disappearing, it's just spots."

"All my magic's gone. I'm spent — I'm not doing anything," Wynn said, hesitantly.

Piper sighed. "I should probably make you wash your hands."

"They made me heal people. The ones who attacked our ship, before we went to Green Meadow."

"I know. I saw you," Piper murmured. She leaned back against the wall. Wynn only had on a thin undershirt. It was dirty and sweaty and clung to her skin. The laces at the top had started to unravel. Wynn's expression was exhausted, and lost. "I slept while we waited to ambush you. I had nightmares." She paused. "Were they torturing you? I saw you unable to move."

Wynn swallowed. "No. It was like being frozen, not…" She looked down and gingerly started curling and uncurling the fingers on her left hand. "Does your arm feel like this all the time?" she whispered.

"No. Just sometimes."

"I didn't see you. I couldn't sleep, I…" Wynn rubbed her arm. "I heard… I thought I heard you telling me to hang on."

"I was thinking it."

"Why have you never told me that your arm hurts?"

Piper wanted to laugh but didn't have the energy. This was what Wynn wanted to ask her about? Of course this was what Wynn wanted to ask her about. "It's phantom pain. There's nothing you can do for it."

After a moment, Wynn unbent her left arm. Then she turned so she could press her back against the wall, too. They sat with their sides pressed together. The ship rocked steadily — someone must have made a decision about which direction to head, because they were moving now.

She had expected Wynn to talk some more. Maybe about what was happening to them now.

Instead, she put her head on Piper's shoulder and closed her eyes.

Piper didn't want to sleep, but with Wynn drifting off right there, she couldn't stop it.

***

Wynn woke up with Warden Renata of Val Caverns standing over her. She jerked up so quickly she banged her head on the bunk above them and nearly toppled off the bed when she realized that Warden Petra was standing in the doorway.

Her hands were still bloody. Her undershirt was filthy. It was also open at the top. Wynn opened her mouth and for once could think of absolutely nothing to say. She closed her lips again without speaking. There were less than twenty Wardens in the entire Dynasty. She knew most of them from their official portraits in the capitol and had only ever met a few in person. Petra she’d only met from the Warden’s visits to her cousin at Blue Falls.

Piper yawned as she woke. She didn't look surprised to see either of the Wardens. She didn't look surprised at all.

"Healer Wynn," Renata said, "I need to take you to see our healers."

"And I need to take you to meet with the knights in charge of Val Caverns security, Piper," Petra said.

Piper's hand settled on Wynn's leg. The cloud over her left eye had cleared while they slept. "No."

Renata glanced at Petra, one eyebrow raised. She looked back at them and said smoothly, "This isn't a request, Lady Piper. This ship is officially docked at Val Caverns. Wynn needs to be tended to, and I need to come back to a security force that knows what they're dealing with. Nine Empire soldiers and a mage. Ten Empire citizens trying to steal  _ my _ weapons. This was an act of war."

"You'll be escorted to the hospital once you're finished," Petra told her.

Piper's fingers curled over her leg. Wynn settled a hand over hers. "I need an examination," Wynn said. She rubbed her thumb over Piper's hand when Piper met her eyes. "They'll even make me wash my hands."

Lips parted, Piper let out the ghost of a laugh.

They went to the deck together but were led in opposite directions as soon as they were on the dock. Piper went down to meet the knights who must have come to the hospital wing over the river, which connected this tunnel and the main, natural entrance to the caverns.

The entrance to the hospital wing was a man-made tunnel carved out of rock and framed by a hillside. The plant life around the entrance was tended aggressively to avoid mudslides. It was enough of a walk up from the dock that at one point Renata put her hand on Wynn's shoulder, and Wynn could feel the push of her magic sink into her body. It was an unpleasant feeling but less unpleasant than tipping off the dock into the water.

"Do you understand what's happening to you?" Renata asked, once they were out of earshot of Piper and Petra.

"Academically."

"Hmm." Renata squeezed her shoulder and waved off the first healer who walked up to them. "I want to see Agnes."

They were shortly out of the tunnel, through a set of doors into a buffer area, and then finally into the hospital wing itself. Whoever had originally built the hospital had brought in pale, red-tinted wood for the structure. It was quiet under their feet when they moved. They bypassed an entire row of exam rooms and entered a hydraulic-operated lift. It took them up three stories. When it stopped moving, Renata had to put her hand on the door and send out three clicks of magic before the doors opened.

It was still a surprise to step into the office of the Lead Healer.

Agnes was in a brown robe with red piping. The robe had split, hanging sleeves that fell away from the healer's arms when she raised them, revealing a white shirt underneath. She also glared at Renata in a way that was extremely familiar. "You should have brought her to an overnight room," she scolded, sweeping out from behind her desk.

"I thought she needed to see you first," Renata said. "Her knight wanted to strike me for suggesting I'd take her away."

"Piper wouldn't have hit you," Wynn said, face flushing.

Agnes snorted. "Renata, get out so I can give this woman an exam."

Renata latched onto Agnes's wrist and kissed it. "Don't wait up for me. I have to escort the Empire prisoners back to the other end of the Caverns before I can even think about going to bed."

"It's extremely optimistic of you to think that at three in the morning any of us are getting to bed before sunrise," Agnes drawled. She placed a palm on Wynn's back and sent a pulse of magic into her just as Renata's magic withdrew. It was enough to get Wynn over to a couch on the other side of the office as Renata left and the elevator doors shut behind her.

It didn't hurt when Agnes gently removed her eyepatch. But nothing about Wynn's vision changed, either. The room was still half dark.

"Mmm." Agnes stared at her, mouth downturned. "You understand that your reserves are almost depleted, yes?"

"Yes." Wynn inhaled. "Is the damage permanent?"

Agnes leaned forward. She carefully placed two fingers above Wynn's eye and pressed her thumb against the skin just below. It took a moment before Wynn could feel any of the magic she was using to sort through the damage. If this same exam were made on her healthy eye, it would have been like having a light shined directly into it. Instead. it just sort of tingled, distantly.

Honestly, it would have been worse for Piper to be in the room. As angry as Piper was going to be at being shut out, again, especially since she wasn't indisposed this time, it was better that she didn't have to wait through the silence of the exam.

"Not permanent. But it's going to take several months to start to come back. Your body shut down the recovery when you started using the last of your magic reserves."

"I know."

"Tell me what happened."

Wynn pressed her lips together for a moment. "The Empire ship attacked our patrol ship using a combat-grade crystal. That magic damaged my eye and collapsed the crystals in Lady Piper's mechanical arm. We retreated to recuperate, but the Empire followed and captured me." She shook her head. "They planned to use me to infiltrate the hospital and thereby gain access to the rest of the Caverns."

"You used your magic up within the last few hours. What happened?" Agnes repeated.

"I used the last of it to put their leader to sleep when she was trying to kill Piper."

Agnes blinked, and both her eyebrows crept up. "Insomnia spell?"

"Anesthetic."

"That was very stupid."

"I know. But it had to work the first time. It was my last chance." Wynn realized her right eye was watering again. She wiped at it with the back of her hand. "She said she would kill her people unless I healed them so they could fight again."

Agnes sighed and went through a door in the corner of her office. She came back with a bowl, water, and soap that Wynn could use to clean her hands. "You should see one of our therapists before you leave," she said. She clicked her tongue at the expression on Wynn's face. "That was a prescription, Healer. I'm also going to prescribe that you sleep. It's going to take days for your magic to begin to rebuild."

Wynn carefully dried her hands. "What about Piper?"

"You're familiar with the process of bonding?"

"Academically," Wynn said again, and the same expression crossed Agnes's face that had gone across Renata's.

Twenty minutes later she was shown to an overnight room on a lower floor. The nurse didn't lock the door when she left. Piper would be by, later.

***

Wynn woke up first. The curtains on the windows were drawn tight, and since the rich brown fabric stretched from floor to ceiling, she had no idea what time it was. She had rolled onto her stomach in her sleep, and her dark hair was twisted around her head. There were probably a thousand knots she'd have to comb out later.

Across from her, propped into a seated position by extra pillows, Piper still slept. Someone had healed the injuries she'd gotten during the fight. Wynn was tired, but she could feel the drift of someone else's magic under Piper's skin. She turned her face back into her pillow and laid there for a moment, tense. Her body was still dragging like it wanted to go back to sleep.

But sleep wouldn't come. And lying with her face in her pillow wasn't conducive to breathing. Wynn dragged herself out from under the covers and then to the little bathroom tucked behind a door in the corner. There was a mirror. She used it to get her hair into some kind of shape and to force herself to absorb how her eye really looked.

Next, she parted the curtains just enough to peek outside. Except there was no outside: there was just wall.

Right. They were underground. They were underground because they were in Val Caverns.

"Come back to bed," Piper mumbled, half-asleep.

She didn't ask why Wynn was holding purely decorative curtains in her hands and staring at the wall. She didn't flinch when Wynn turned around, either. Not even when Wynn crawled back onto the bed and it was easy to see that her left eye had entirely whited out.

Piper did touch her temple, though. "What did they say?"

"Several months before I'll notice any recovery. The combat crystal Efa used reacted badly with my magic." Wynn rested her head against the headboard and debated whether to add what else she'd ended up talking about with Healer Agnes, but Piper had already dreamt part of it. "The damage was exacerbated by her using the crystal to restrain me. Then I exhausted my own magic, so…"

Piper twisted their fingers together and squeezed her hand.

"You didn't have to stay here with me," Wynn said, staring at their hands. "They would have given you another room."

"Do you want me to leave?"

Wynn pulled one of her legs underneath herself, trying to get comfortable. It didn't help. "If you stay, I can't stop the bond."

Piper kissed the top of her head and lifted her chin. "You didn't answer me."

"Warden Renata and Healer Agnes can hear each other's thoughts from opposite ends of Val Caverns. Agnes can heal Renata without being in the room. Renata can do advanced healing magic she shouldn't be able to do, that she hasn't studied, because she's drawing it from Agnes. They've been together for eighteen years." Wynn kept staring at the bedspread, their hands. Piper had a few pale scars against her brown hands that she'd never asked Wynn to heal. "They know how the other is feeling without speaking. If they're angry at each other, it hurts. If Agnes gets hurt, Renata feels it. It's not all — It's not all good, Piper."

Piper didn't say anything.

"It changes your career prospects. They're not going to send a bonded healer back to the front lines until I've gotten more experience. I can't make battlefield miracles." Wynn swallowed. Piper's face was relaxed — and blank. It went out of focus for a moment before Wynn blinked her vision back.

"You still didn't answer me," she said, gently.

"Why would you want to tie yourself to me?"

Piper squeezed her hand again. Her lips parted, but Wynn couldn't take it — she let go of her hand and slid off the bed. She had to move. The room was small, barely big enough to pace in. She walked from one end to the other, spun, and repeated the motion, the sleeping dress they'd given her swirling around her knees.

"I snap at people, and I do things without telling you, and I argue with everybody. You have to order me to do things all the time."

"Wynn."

"I hate it when we get stupid orders and you follow them anyway. I hate that I have to follow you when you do it. And I have so much trouble repairing your arm when it gets damaged. I hate — I hate that I'm not—" She clenched her teeth and slapped her hand against the wall the next time she turned. The right side of her face was wet, and her skin was flushed. "I'm not the kind of healer you need. I've never been—"

"Wynn." Piper held her hand out.

The red in Wynn's face turned darker. She bit back whatever she was going to spit out next, though, and stepped forward to place her hand in Piper's.

"Do you want me to leave?" Piper tightened her grip on Wynn's wrist when she started to protest. "Wynn. You need to answer me. Honestly. If you…" Piper sucked in a sharp breath, and looked down at Wynn's wrist, briefly. "If you tell me to leave, I will get up and walk through that door. I'll keep walking until whatever this is snaps and lets go of you."

A cracked sound came out of Wynn's throat.

Piper turned her wrist over and kissed it. She had started to shake, a little. "I need you to tell me — I need you to give me  _ permission _ …"

"I hate that you think I loved Anita," Wynn blurted. "I hate so much that she's gone. I hate the people who took her, and I hate myself for not saving her. But you say her name, and you look like you're afraid you're losing me to her, and I was never with her in the first place!"

Piper's eyes widened.

"This is the kind of thing you'll hear from me if — if you stay. If you w-want to stay with me," Wynn said. She had to make her understand. "Gods,  _ yes _ , I want you to stay with me. But you have to understand! This is it. This is all I am. You won't be able to get away from it. If you stay, if you let me bond with you, and you leave, later, I won't be able to stand it. You won't be able to stand it. It'll kill us."

She was taking in deep, sharp breaths that stretched her chest too much. Piper's face had paled a little, gone ashen.

"So. That's it." Wynn tried to think of something smart to say, but couldn't. She could only let out a strangled laugh. "I want you to stay with me, Piper. I feel like I'll die if you don't. But I won't. You won't. Not yet. This is it. This is your last chance to walk away."

***

"No one ever said…"

"Why do you think there are so few bonded knights on the front lines?" Wynn asked. Her face was tear-stained, but it was like saying it out loud had sapped something out of her. She sank to the mattress and leaned her head back against the headboard and stared at Piper, her face creased and anxious. She had stopped crying, though. "This is why they put healers in groups. So this won't happen."

Piper's mind raced. She had spent the last few months assuming that as soon as she had trained enough with her new arm, they'd be sent back to protect the border.

The Empire would give up on the mountain passes in the winter, but the plains would still be defenseless. Everyone said it was going to be years until peace was negotiated. One of them was going to have to give up mines, or a water source. One of them was going to have to sell it as a victory. Piper had imagined they would be on the front lines when that happened.

And she'd imagined either coaxing Wynn to stay with her or watching her go, at some point.

She'd laid at camp, nursing injuries while Wynn fussed at her for slipping, and she'd known Wynn would keep fussing at her for years, even if she did something that killed her. She'd known Wynn would keep going even if her job left Piper in the ground.

Wordlessly, she took Wynn's hand in hers again. She traced the lines in Wynn's palm with her thumb and struggled to think. "I spoke to Iris before I came here," she finally said.

Wynn squinted at her. Gods, Piper was going to have to get used to that white eye.

She caught the thought a split second after it formed. Gods. She couldn't leave. Not even if it killed Wynn. Fuck.

"You're not selfish," Wynn said, absently.

Piper's cheeks burned. "It's that easy to hear me?"

"I don't know why you mentioned Iris."

"She told me the Empire would kill me, salt my remains, the usual," Piper said, trying to get her composure back. And trying to keep everything from bursting to the top of her mind all at once. "She said they'd take you back to their kingdom and put you in the basement of a hospital somewhere."

"You wanted to kill her."

"I thought about it. I have killed people, and it's always bad, even if you're just stopping them from killing you," Piper said. She tilted her head and leaned back, so Wynn could get a good look at her face.

"This is what  _ you'll _ be stuck with, Wynn. It may take us a while to get another assignment. But I kill people. You heal them. I want — I want you, even if I means we'll argue without even speaking. Even if it means we get angry and can't walk away from it. Even if it means I'll get you killed." She raised Wynn's hand and kissed her wrist. "Can you live with that?"

Wynn twisted her hand out of Piper's grip, but only so she could take Piper's face in both hands and hold her still.

Oh. Mmm. Wynn's mouth was hot. All of her was hot, actually. They'd given her a sleeveless sleeping dress that rode up when Wynn swung herself into Piper's lap. Piper was wearing a random — but clean — shirt from another knight. It was too snug and only came down to her hips. Before going to bed, she'd taken off the slacks they'd given her, so her legs were bare. Wynn's thighs were hot where they pressed against her own. It was clear she hadn't bothered to put on anything underneath the sleeping dress.

"If you want me to do that you're going to have to ask out loud," Wynn whispered, face pink, when they broke for air.

Piper wet her lips. "Take that off," she murmured.

"That wasn't a  _ request _ ," Wynn protested. But she was grinning. She grabbed the bottom of her sleeping dress and pulled it over her head in one fluid motion, throwing it behind her.

Piper smiled, and Wynn laced her fingers together behind Piper's head. They had been undressed in front of each other before. Sometimes their camps were so far from any settlement that the only bathing option was a river.

There was also an unfortunately memorable occasion when Lucille got all of them covered in Wild Blood Ember sap, and, well. There was a reason the plants were only sold dried. Alive, they were more potent than almost anybody wanted.

Wynn touched their foreheads together. "Well?"

"Do you remember last year, the summer ball we were recalled to because Lucille's sister demanded we all be there?" Piper smirked and pressed a kiss to Wynn's mouth when she flushed red. "Sometimes I still think about that," she admitted.

"That's hardly chivalrous of you," Wynn said. She bit her lip and let out a little squeak when Piper rolled a thumb over her nipple. That was cute. She did it again and pinched gently, enjoying the way Wynn had thrust her chest forward, silently asking her for more. Wynn didn't even seem to notice she was doing it. She shook her head and asked, "What do you even think about? You didn't dance with me once the entire night."

"Only because I thought if I did, I wouldn't be able to keep my hands to myself," Piper cupped her hand over Wynn's breast. Wynn squirmed slightly in her lap. "You should leave your shoulders bare more often."

"Oh, sure, I'll get my travel clothes altered."

Piper snorted. She let her hand trail down Wynn's stomach and dip between her thighs. Mmm. Her first finger slid in easily, and Wynn squeaked again. "You don't think I like sharing, do you?"

"No."

Wynn rocked forward, and Piper decided she liked it when Wynn pressed flat against her front. It made teasing her a little hard, since there wasn't much room to move her hand, but she  _ was _ able to slide another finger into Wynn's pussy. The flush on Wynn's face crept down into her chest, which was nice to watch.

"I would have let you, you know," Wynn whispered, rocking her hips. "If you had asked me to dance, I would've…"

"You tell me this  _ now _ , of course." She kissed Wynn's jawline.

Whimpering, Wynn buried her face in Piper's neck. Piper was starting to feel flushed, herself. She rolled the heel of her palm over Wynn's clit and let her dig her fingers into Piper's shoulders.

"Piper," Wynn whispered.

"Yes?"

"How long are you going to keep teasing me?"

Piper smiled, slowly, and laughed when Wynn glared at her. "Needy," she murmured. She slowly withdrew her hand from between Wynn's thighs and tried not to smirk at the bereft expression on Wynn's face. "Lie down."

"That wasn't a request either," came out as more of a whine than Wynn may have intended, but she did fall back on the bed, propping herself up with her elbows. Her breasts splayed slightly to each side, and the thatch of hair between her legs was visibly wet. She bit her lip when Piper sat there, staring for a moment. "Piper…?"

"One of these days you're going to show me how you touch yourself," Piper said. She started undoing the laces of her shirt. "Spread your legs a little for me, Wynn."

Wynn hesitated, then laid down all the way. One hand drifted over her stomach and the other twisted into the sheets. Piper got her shirt off and decided to deal with her underwear when it became relevant. Then, she kneeled between Wynn's legs, spread now, and lowered her head. Nearly the instant she started kissing Wynn's thighs, Wynn's hand drifted up to start playing with her nipple.

Piper was half tempted to drag this out as long as possible, but Wynn was nearly over-sensitive to her touch by that point; too much teasing could send her over the edge. Piper wasn't ready for her to come yet — she thrust her fingers back into Wynn's pussy, varying the depth and speed of her strokes, but avoided her clit until Wynn was digging at the sheets with both hands.

"That's a pretty sight."

_ Piper!  _ sounded in the back of her head even though Wynn's teeth were digging into her lower lip. Oh. Oh, that, she could get used to.

She lowered her head and licked briefly at Wynn's pussy, testing her reactions. Her lips parted when Piper rocked her fingers back and forth inside her while kissing just below her clit. She actually moaned when Piper pulled her hand back, using it to brace herself on the bed so she could move her tongue into Wynn's pussy. Desperate, breathy, unspoken words flowed into Piper's head —  _ Please  _ and  _ godsdamnit, Piper  _ and  _ nownownow  _ among them — until Piper kissed her clit and rolled her tongue. It felt like Wynn broke underneath her: her hand went slack in the sheets and she covered her face, whimpering. Her legs went weak.

Piper rested her cheek on Wynn's stomach for a moment, after, until she caught her breath and could crawl up the bed to lie down beside her. "Are you up for more?" she asked, guiding Wynn's hand between her legs.

Wynn tugged at the waistband and pulled her underwear off. She flushed when she turned and saw that Piper's mouth was still wet. "What do you want?" she asked.

Piper concentrated on an image, and even the tips of Wynn's ears went red. Yes, she could  _ absolutely _ get used to this.

***

Someone knocked, later. Wynn reached down to pick a shoe off the floor and threw it at the door.

Whoever it was didn't knock again.


End file.
